


Risk Averse

by SylvanWitch



Series: Risky Business [4]
Category: Magnum P.I. (TV 2018)
Genre: Angst, Break Up, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:07:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22366870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SylvanWitch/pseuds/SylvanWitch
Summary: Magnum tells a tiny white lie in the course of a job, and it has staggering consequences for his relationship with Detective Katsumoto.
Relationships: Gordon Katsumoto/Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV
Series: Risky Business [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1603222
Comments: 12
Kudos: 42





	Risk Averse

“You lied to me,” Detective Katsumoto said—and it _was_ the detective speaking.

Though their professional relationship had grown more amicable since they’d started dating, Gordon was still capable of giving Magnum the cold, flat look every law enforcement officer must learn in Policing 101.

That Gordon was giving Magnum the look now did not bode well for the date he’d had planned for them later that night. It was their six-month anniversary, and Magnum had taken pains to recreate their first date: The food they ate, the wine they drank, the blanket where they’d decided to give their relationship a shot.

Now, because he’d lied about his having access to a crime scene before HPD had actually been notified of the crime committed therein, Magnum was beginning to suspect the date might have to be postponed, if the muscle ticking in Gordon’s jaw was anything to go by.

“Well, ye-es,” Magnum answered, drawing it out, putting on his rueful face. “But it was for a good cause,” he added hopefully. 

Magnum’s client had suspected that she was being set up to take the fall for a coworker who was embezzling from the company payroll.

Magnum might have engaged in a little light B&E to ascertain the whereabouts of the larcenous co-worker, so he could prevent the man from planting evidence on his client.

Was it his fault that the embezzler was dead in the middle of his living room when Magnum entered?

And had it been so wrong of Magnum to hold off on calling in the murder until he’d assured himself that his client was unlikely to be connected to either the original crime or this secondary, far more problematic one?

It wasn’t that Magnum didn’t trust Gordon personally—when it came to their relationship, Magnum was totally honest. Gordon demanded it and, more than that, he deserved it.

But professionally, Gordon was still a member of the HPD, and to prevent putting his boyfriend in a bind, Magnum had told a teensy little lie. When Gordon had called to ask Magnum where he was, Magnum had told him he was at Kamekona’s shrimp truck.

How was he to know that Gordon would go there to find him, apparently intending to surprise him with anniversary plans of his own?

He couldn’t even be righteously indignant that Gordon had used his professional resources to track the Ferrari. After all, Magnum had already been kidnapped on Gordon’s watch; a guy would naturally be concerned if Magnum didn’t show up where he’d said he was supposed to be.

Unfortunately, Magnum didn’t really have time to explain himself.

Even as he opened his mouth to try to tell Gordon what was going on, two squad cars pulled up, the uniformed officers hopping out with alacrity and hustling to the detective for their orders.

“Later,” Gordon said curtly, and it sounded like a threat.

Later, as it turned out, meant after Magnum had given his statement to a uniform, been asked for elimination prints (even though a certain detective knew very well that Magnum’s prints were already on file), been forced to walk through his every action over the two days since his client had hired him, and been made to sit in the back of a squad car while someone tracked down Magnum’s client and detained her for questioning.

At no point in the long, long afternoon did Detective Katsumoto even check in with Magnum, and as the day progressed, he felt dread growing cold and heavy in his belly. He’d really screwed up this time, he knew.

Still, Gordon’s final words to him before he told Magnum to go home were said under his breath, for Magnum’s ears only: “I’ll see you there at seven.”

Magnum was sure that he could put the grace period he’d been given to good use, laying out his explanation in a logical order that would most appeal to his boyfriend’s pragmatic nature.

*****

“I’m sorry,” Magnum said, before Gordon could even get all the way into the guest house. “I shouldn’t have lied to you, but—”

Behind him, the table was laid out with gleaming flatware and glasses, the muted white of the bone china plates deepened by the candlelight spilling over them. A bottle of wine breathed next to a salad Magnum had taken extra care to put together.

The house smelled of garlic shrimp and spicy rice, the kind Gordon loved. It was perfect.

It wasn’t enough.

Gordon didn’t follow him to the kitchen or take a seat at the table. He’d halted in the entryway, only two steps from the door.

“Stop right there, Magnum,” Gordon said. The last name was a bad sign, but when Magnum turned, surprised at his abruptness, Gordon’s closed-off expression and deliberately neutral tone made it clear that this wasn’t a social call.

“If you have to qualify your apology, then you’re not actually sorry, and you’re certainly not committed to never doing it again.”

“It’s not—,” Magnum tried.

Gordon held up a hand like he was stopping traffic.

“Save it. I’m not here to listen to your excuses, Magnum.” 

Magnum felt like someone was squeezing his ribcage, like his heart was suddenly far too big for his chest. He tried to focus on his breathing, to remember that Gordon’s cool tone and expressionless face were only because Magnum had lied, and he could make it right.

He _had_ _to_ make it right.

Magnum didn’t want to ask the next logical question. He suspected—and the pressure in his chest confirmed—that he already knew the answer. But he had to—the nature of the silence between them demanded it.

Taking a strangled breath, Magnum asked, “Why are you here, then?” It came out plaintive rather than confident, and he hated the way his voice sounded.

Gordon’s own voice was heavy with regret and taut with resolve when he said, “We’re finished, Magnum. I can’t keep doing this.”

“Doing what? Loving me?” It was a low blow—he knew that isn’t what Gordon had meant, but all he could hear was that he was being abandoned again. It was a pathetic ploy, which only made Magnum angry—with himself, for creating this situation, and with Gordon for being so damned upright and stubborn.

A flash of feeling crossed Gordon’s face—something desperate and raw.

Then Magnum watched a wall come down, the flat, bored affect of a world-weary cop, as if Magnum was just one more domestic tragedy to be reported.

“It was never going to work,” Gordon said.

“That’s not true!” Magnum protested, reaching for Gordon, wanting to touch him, to take the coolness out of his eyes.

Gordon took a step back, out of Magnum’s reach.

“It is, Magnum. Look around: You live in someone else’s house. You drive someone else’s car. You don’t own anything of value. Your life’s a dream…and so was this.”

Gordon gestured between them, as if a single wave could somehow express everything they’d done together, what they’d meant to each other—all of it, so much smoke to be waved away.

Magnum swallowed the painful lump in his throat as Gordon stepped back toward him, touched his cheek, a tender, lingering touch, and then dropped his hand.

“I live in the real world, where there are consequences for our actions. I can’t spend anymore time with you. I can’t live in two worlds.”

Magnum wanted to protest that Gordon had it all wrong—that he could change—that he _had_ changed for Gordon.

But Gordon was already walking away, already halfway out the door.

“Wait!” Magnum cried, but Gordon didn’t. He kept going until the door closed behind him.

A moment later, Magnum heard Gordon’s car start and then listened as even that sound faded out of his hearing.

He was in a borrowed house in the middle of someone else’s paradise, and it was like he’d finally woken up out of a deep, sound sleep to discover he’d lost everything that mattered while he dreamed.

**Author's Note:**

> One part to go!


End file.
